The year 2020 will become a historical boundary, like 1815 or 1945. Lots of things will be done differently after COVID-19. Most of the changes will accelerate existing trends, much like the Black Death hastened the end of serfdom or World War I ushered in the era of the nation-state. But some will have the opposite effect. Let’s start with the accelerations.

1) Higher government spending: A constant lament of this column has been that the Tea Party disappeared when it was most needed. Before the first coronavirus case, the Trump administration was already running a trillion-dollar deficit, as high as anything seen under President Barack Obama, and without the excuse of a financial crisis. Yet the people who had been protesting Obama’s spending suddenly stopped caring. This year, the deficit looks like it will be $3 trillion. If you think that will lead to a sudden demand for fiscal rectitude, you cannot have been watching. Spending takes on a momentum of its own. “If you can find $3 trillion,” people will say, “you can find a few hundred million to help my business recover” (or “increase my benefits” or whatever).